Night descended on the vast metropolis. Christian looked out over the cold streetlights and down at the busy hub-bub below.
‘We’re all convicts in high rise cells,’ he said to himself gloomily, thinking of the predicament of other apartment dwellers like himself. Ever since he had moved here he felt, empty like something was missing from his life. Ah, well, he thought, tonight I won’t be lonely. Then he headed out to meet the lads.
Inside the nightclub the same intoxicating fumes of smoke as the street assailed his lungs along with alcohol, but that was soon forgotten as he greeted his friends John, Garth and Roger.
‘Think you’ll get lucky tonight, Christy?’ inquired John as his latest lover, Jeanette sidled over with her mates. Of Jeanette’s friend’s, Christian only knew Dominique with her long curly brown hair, petite figure and piercing green eyes. She looked very fetching in her black, knee-high, one-piece skirt.
‘Hi, Dominique,’ said Christian and they engaged in varied and pleasurable conversation. Later on they danced and by the end of the night, Christian found himself feeling very close to Dominique.
On leaving the lads to walk Dominique home with John’s drunken roar of ‘Don’t let her keep you up all night!’ still echoing in his ears, Dominique huddled up close to keep warm in the cool night air. When they reached Dominique’s, they stared into each other’s eyes and Christian cradled her delicate brown curls in his hands and bent over to kiss her soft lips. They made contact slowly but firmly, pausing longer with each kiss more passionate than the next. Christian closed his eyes, imagining he was flying skyward through light fluffy clouds.
Then Christian could no longer feel her lips against his and his feet no longer seemed to touch the ground. Looking back at her orange eyes and down at his now feathery body he realised they had both become owls! He also knew why. As a child, his parents had told him that he was a metamorph- a shape changer and that should he kiss another metamorph both he and his partner would become whatever he was thinking of.
Suddenly Dominique cut across his thoughts telepathically, saying, ‘so, we are alike in more ways than one! How would you like a dip in the ocean?’
‘I would be delighted to have one,’ Christian replied, realizing how close they were to Atlantic. Then they lifted above the orange lights of the city, sauntering upwards with grace. They soared above the outskirts, their eyes glinting in the dusk, and dived between rounded hills with the wind hissing as they headed towards the calm undulating waves below.
On hitting the swell they became salmon and swishes their silvery tails about as they plunged towards the murky depths of the seaweed filled ocean. Cutting through the water they felt like children again, experiencing new sensations as if for the first time. Then they burst out of the surf to become fireflies, their luminosity guiding them home to the city.
When they reached the streets and became human again, Christian realised it had been eight years since he had last changed shape. As they left to go their separate ways, the dawn sun now rising, Christian knew that at last he was no longer alone in the human world.
